Sunday, 19 March 2017

Golovkin unifies in highly disputed decision in NY.

Unified World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (37-0, 34 KO’s) had his toughest assignment to date on Saturday in New York when he was forced to the wire over 12 for the first time since 2008, winning a debatable unanimous decision victory against WBA regular Champion Danny Jacobs (32-2, 29 KO’s). Most experts had Jacobs written off beforehand and were almost made to eat their words.. Both fighters started cautiously, each respectful of the other, but it was Jacobs who soon settled into a rhythm, cleverly picking his spots using nice movement.. The pattern continued through 3, with Jacobs earning what looked like a healthy lead.. In the fourth, Golovkin finally found his mark, dropping Jacobs on the ropes with a left hook, right hand combination.. Jacobs recovered well but chose to try meet fire with fire, losing much of his early momentum.. Golovkin barely took a backward step but was often on the end of clever counters from the more composed Brooklyn man.. Jacobs appeared to be outboxing Golovkin through the majority of the later rounds, with the Kazakh fighter urgently pressing for another breakthrough, looking strong but predictable.. The bout was difficult to interpret, but many fighters at ringside saw Jacobs the victor after a strong finish.. Golovkin won a surprising decision on scores of 115-112 (twice) and 114-113.. My own scorecard had Jacobs edging it by 114-113.

Shockingly, after four rounds Golovkin was ahead 39-36 on all three cards (Three rounds many ringsiders had Jacobs winning comfortably) while after eight rounds, GGG remained ahead 77-74, 77-74 and 78-73. After Golovkin won the ninth round across the board, Jacobs needed at least a knockdown to draw. Even though Jacobs took the last three rounds on two cards, and two on the third card, it wasn't enough.. Golovkin edged it 114-113 on the cards of Max DeLuca and Don Trella, while Steve Weisfeld had GGG ahead 115-112.

Jacobs, disappointed afterwards vented that he'd clearly won the fight, and insinuated that the decision was political, Golovkins victory smoothing the way for a moneyspinning fight with Saul Alvarez in the summer.